Switched
Switched is a novel by Sienna Mercer, and the first of eight books in the My Sister the Vampire ''collection. It features 13-year-old Olivia Abbott, and Ivy Vega. Olivia and Ivy meet each other and find out that they are identical twins because they each have identical emerald rings. Soon, however, Olivia finds out that Ivy is a vampire. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Switched_(book)&action=edit&section=1 editPlot ''Switched is the first book to the My Sister the Vampire series. The book is about a thirteen-year-old 8th grader named Olivia Abbott, who moves to Franklin Grove due to her father's job and meets her long-lost identical twin sister, Ivy Vega, who she later finds out is a vampire.[1] On her first day at Franklin Grove Middle School, Olivia encounters a fashionably dressed Goth girl who points her to the main office. The girl turns out to be Ivy Vega, who upon running into Olivia, feels a strange sensation, as if she had met her before. While at the main office, Olivia meets and befriends Camilla Edmunson, a sci-fi obsessed blonde with curly hair. In their first period social studies class, Olivia Abbott is introduced to the students. Ivy has a strong feeling of déjà vu upon seeing her again, and asks her best friend (since she was four), Sophia Hewitt, if they know her, to which Sophia replies, "She's 2 pink 4 us 2 know!" (it's also revealed that the two girls, along with most other vampires, call humans "bunnies"). After class, Olivia is cornered by The Beasts, a gang of four greasy, creepy Goth boys, who call her "new meat" (their names are revealed to be Garrick Stephens, Kyle Glass, Dylan Soyle and Ricky Slitherman in the next book). Ivy comes to Olivia's defense and fends off the goons, to which Olivia gratefully thanks her. Ivy's hit by a powerful wave of nausea mixed with strangeness, and rushes off before Olivia can finish talking (which Olivia feels guilty about because she thought she must have been coming on too strong). In her P.E. class, Olivia meets her new gym teacher, Ms. Barnett, who's also the cheerleading coach at the school, and meets and befriends Charlotte Brown and her two minions/best friends, Katie and Allison. Later at lunch, the three girls invite Olivia to sit at their lunch table, and Olivia reluctantly agrees, who had been hoping to sit with Camilla. Charlotte explains the "rules" of Franklin Grove Middle School, which mostly just revolves around her, the cheerleading captain-ship (which Ms. Barnett told Olivia wouldn't be decided until the actual tryouts), and the color pink (which they all love). As Ivy and her friends pass by their table, Charlotte makes a snide remark, but Ivy says nothing. Olivia's shocked and stands up for Ivy, but Charlotte dismisses Ivy, saying, "the walking dead don't have feelings!" In science class, Ivy's annoyed that the new girl, Olivia, had been sucked into Charlotte's web so easily and was now her new BFF. Instead, Olivia comes up to Ivy's table and apologizes for Charlotte's insult and compliments her on her incredible style. Ivy reveals to Olivia that she had tried out for cheerleading in sixth grade (to Olivia's astonishment) and actually made the squad, beating out Charlotte, who was originally an alternative. She then decided that cheerleading wasn't her thing, so she had quit the squad after the first week and joined the school newspaper (which is revealed to be called the "Scribe" in the second book). While working on the lab experiment, Ivy notices the dark emerald ring on Olivia's middle finger and realizes that it looks exactly like the ring Ivy wears on her neck. The ring is the only thing Ivy had from her real parents and was given it on her tenth birthday (Ivy had been adopted). After class, Ivy pulls Olivia to the science hall bathroom (which Ivy claims is the least frequented bathroom in the school) where they discuss their rings, their birthplace and date, their adoptive parents, and find out that they're identical twin sisters. As the story progresses and Olivia and Ivy's sisterhood bonding grows stronger, they decide to switch places and fool everyone, sometimes for the fun of it, but also to fill in for each others' places in times of need. They switch places, everything from makeup to clothes and learning how to talk and act like each other - which won't be easy, given that Ivy is a pale, low-profile Goth who only has one adoptive parent and several Goth friends who use different terms like "sucks" (which is slang for "good"), and "deadly" (meaning "awesome"). On the other hand, Olivia's a perky pink vegetarian cheerleader who bounces and smiles when she walks. Also, Olivia doesn't mind being the center of attention. Their eating habits are also a problem - Ivy's food always contains blood or strong iron content, and Olivia's family are vegetarians (though Olivia's probably a pesectarian, because at the beginning of the story she mentions that she likes sushi, which often has fish in it) and are strong lovers of tofu and salads. But the hardest part of switching identities is trying to fit in with the people that the girls usually hang around. Ivy and Olivia face many differences in their new world as the All Hallows Ball approaches; Brendan, Ivy's longtime crush, and Ivy finally start to date; Olivia badly wanting to make it onto the Devils cheerleading squad (the school mascot), and telling Sophia about the newly-discovered fact that they are definitely long-lost twin sisters. Everything seems to go fine until Ivy finally tells Olivia that she's a vampire and proves so, and that Sophia and a lot of other Goths in Franklin Grove aren't just goths, but are actually vampires (Ivy explains to Olivia that most of the so-called Goths in town are actually vampires, and the rest are "bunnies" just like her).